The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-11-29

ne u 40 was raItIe. l. was AFRAID the
bat would scare the snake to death, 50
i took it out of the cage. 1 put the
dove in the cage with Nicodemus Just
to see what he would do. That dove
lived with the snake five years. I've Of
ten seen 1t and Nicodemus asleep to-
gether. Sometimes the bird being
perched on the snake, and some.
times wrapped up in its coils.
At the same time the snake
was killing birds, mice, young
rabbits and other things right along. as
its appetite called for. One day the
dove got its head through one of the
meshes in the woven wire of the cage,
and before it was discovered the poor
bird was choked to death like pleas
ant in a snare. I got another one so
nearly like the dead dove that no one
could have told 'ein apart When
Nicodemus was asleep put the bird
in his cage. The snake woke up along
in the afternoon. He had hardly got
his eyes open when he sprang at the
dove like flash of lightning and made
his supper off of her. He knew she
wasn't his old friend that died.
There 10 no telling how long sn
animal will live after being struck by
a rattlesnake, and it may not die ut all.
have known rat TO die within six
minutes after Nicodemus set its fangs
in its neck, and have known one,
again, to live more than a day after
being struck. turned little bantam
hen into Nicodemus' cage one day,
and when he stuck her il made
her so mad that she drove him
into a corner bleeding like stuck pig.
I was afraid this excited little fowl
would kill him, and / took her out as
soon as / could. She keeled over an
hour afterwards. and I supposed, of
course, she was done for, with all that
ratlesnake poison in her. but she lived
three days in stupor and then gradu-
ally got well. That was the only in
stance 1 ever knew of any thing re-
covering from the bite of a rattlesnake
without being treated for the poison
ing"
Except hogs, pop" interiected the
rattlesnake kings SON once more.
''Oh. yes, except hogs" replied the
father. Lord! yes. Hogs don'tmind
rattlesnakes any more than / mind
flies. had an old SOW once-do you
mind old Jennie, Bob?"-that was q
regular terror To rattlesnakes. She
could find the trail of one as surely as
a hound can find the deer's track, and
She follow that trail till she came up
with the snake that made it, and then
the rattler was her meat She
didn't seem to care for any other kind
of snake. but she'd hunt rattlers from
the beginning Of the season till the
end. If could have taught that pig
to retrieve she'd have been worth q
good deal to me, for the number of
snakes she'd have brought In during
the season would have been immense;
but she wasn't ON the retrieve. She
was hunting for her own sccommoda-
ton, and ate every snake she caught
leaving only the head. used to find
SO many rattlesnake heads on my tours
through the woods that it began to
dawn on me that my old sow was
working dead against me by destroy
ing the snake crop. and was finally
forced to kill her for my own protec-
ton.
81 have tried the effect of Nicode-
mus bite on many different animals
and birds. and with the exception of
the bantam and a cur dog that ex-
perimented on. every one Of them died.
some very soon after being bitten, and
some not until three or four days had
passed. 1 am sorry to say that Nico-
demus has a record of one man, too,
on his list of victims. As a general
thing, do not believe that the bite of
a rattlesnake will result fatally to hui
man beings, but it did in this case.
The mans name was Flint, and it was
all his own fault that he was bitten.
He was one of those over-courageous,
smart fellows. who think they can do
any thing. He was at my place one
day and got to teasing the snake. FL
nally he poked his finger through one
of the meshes of the wire at Nicode-
mus. When a rattlesnake strikes it
never misses its mark if what it strikes
at is within reach. There is no move
ment in the world quicker than a rat
tlesnake's strike. The snake struck at
Flint's finger and, of course, hit it. In
two hours the man was dead. / hadn't
a drop of whisky in the house, and be-
fore it was possible to send and get
some Flint was dead.
"a human being seems to be the only
creature that suffers pain from a rattle
snakes bite. Every other living thing
that ever saw bitten by rattlesnake
seemed to act as if it had been chloro-
w., M, HouJlxv eoa ,rIo~1